MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT AS YOUR THOUGHTS
MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT AS YOUR THOUGHTS
It is evident that there must be only one true way of seeing everything as it is in itself. There may be endless relations in which any particular thing stands with respect to other things; but there must be only one light in which everything is seen by God. I may truly see how a thing relates to me but then I am regarding it from my own point of view, and exclusively in its relation to myself. The great question is, not whether I see a certain thing, and how it stands in relation to me, but do I see it as God sees it, and as it stands in relation to Him? The tendency with man is to judge of everything as it affects himself, and because this is a veritable judgment - that is, it is real in his own mind, it is difficult to alter it, for he cannot alter it sincerely, until he changes his position. He judges as it refers to himself, this is the light in which he sees it; and this is so real to him that it must continue, until he sees it from a new point of view, and then it will be again real to him though quite different.
Nothing is more patent or more remarkable than how differently people will see the same thing. Each one is convinced that he is right, and he is sincerely convinced, because he has judged of it from the way it stands in relation to himself, and of what it is really to him. The simple and all important point is to judge of everything entirely apart from oneself, and as God judges of it, for our thoughts are not as His thoughts. How differently one would speak of what is called a happy incident and a painful one, if one had seen that the first was a bait to the greatest sorrow, and the latter a check to an intended folly.
The real cause of our inability to see things as God sees them is in our own minds. The natural man understandeth [p. 32] not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto him. The first thing then in order to be able to judge of things as God judges of them, is to have the mind of the Spirit. It is the lack of the mind of Christ which is the cause of the inability of the best intentioned to judge as He judges. How can I see things as He sees them if I have not His mind? But “we have the mind of Christ”; and as we judge of things in His mind, we judge rightly. If there were no rival mind all would be easy enough: but the carnal mind hinders according to its strength, and if not subject to the Spirit of God it will lead contrary to God. Thus we often find that when there is most natural mind in a saint, unless it is under the control of the Spirit, there will be most error in divine judgment. It is not that having a dull mind makes a person judge better; but such an one will not be able to influence others so much as a man with a powerful mind. The natural mind can be, and is used by the Spirit of God to convey the light, and to communicate the thoughts of Christ. It does not enable one to grasp truth, though it does to communicate it to others. The natural mind cannot assist the mind of Christ; the superior must necessarily demand the subjection of the inferior. The thoughts spring from the mind; therefore the first thing to ascertain about any thought is, Does this come from the mind of Christ, or from the natural mind? The most acute natural mind cannot in any degree reach the mind of Christ, simply for this reason, that each forms a judgment from entirely different and opposite stand-points. The natural mind, however acute, makes man its centre, its point of departure and its return; the mind of Christ makes God the centre, everything springs from Him and concentrates in Him. Now it is on account of this rivalry between the natural and spiritual mind that it is said that the matured are those who by reason of habit “have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil”. (Hebrews 5: 14.) There is no ability in a man to see what evil really is in the sight [p. 33] of God, until he has seen what good is. It is as he learns good, that he can distinguish it from evil, otherwise he is not skilful in the word of righteousness, he is a babe. It is therefore seldom, unless when walking in communion with Christ (which is common mind with the Lord) that one sees things at first as the Lord sees them. Man’s mind cannot rise beyond himself, and this becomes very marked when he attempts to judge of divine things apart from the mind of Christ.
The mind of Christ is the new creation, and this is not helped by the natural mind, but by the Spirit of God; hence the mind of Christ will judge wisely for a saint, even as to natural things, and better than the natural mind, which will judge quite in a different way, and not at all according to the mind of the Lord. Thus there is a double gain when I am led by the Spirit of Christ; I can then judge of things for man in the smallest detail, as God has ordered them for him, whereas the greatest natural intellect can at best judge for him only in relation to himself as man.
The great proof of maturity is that a habit has been acquired of exercising the senses to discern good and evil; there is the consciousness that there is a rivalry; - “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would”, - that you may be superior to the flesh.
There are different ways by which we are drawn away and led to act according to our own mind, while we think we are acting according to the mind of God. The one great clue by which to detect this deception, is whether the judgment we act upon is favourable or easy for ourselves, or whether it does not consider enough for us, but leaves the issue, as human foresight would say, to chance, or, as faith would say, to God.
The word of God simply accepted, forms His mind in us; it must form our judgment, but is not to be used to support our preconceived judgments. Hence the interpretation [p. 34] of the word betrays most distinctly the attempt of the natural mind to comprehend the mind of God. Every ignorance in doctrine or practice for which one uses Scripture, shows how one’s thoughts are not as God’s thoughts. If everyone saw only as much as he sees according to the mind of Christ, there would be no perversion, no erroneous interpretation authorizing strange practices.
This class is the most numerous, and the most difficult to convince of their mistake, for almost everyone, even Satan, endeavours to have a scriptural authority for his view of things. They assert they have authority from Scripture for what they desire, and even the desire they may have acquired in a natural way from the Scriptures. Eve is an example of this; she interprets the promise that her seed should bruise the serpent’s head in a natural way, merely referring it to herself, and therefore she concludes that her firstborn son is the man.
Naturally she had some ground for this interpretation, for if there were no ground for it, there would be no difficulty in disabusing the mind of it; but the ground is one that no one skilful in the word of righteousness would admit, even that a child of Adam fallen, could regain what Adam innocent had lost; that one under judgment like Cain, could effect his deliverance when his father, though in innocence and safety, was not able to retain the place in which God had set him.
Now there was no exercise here; the promise of God was embraced because it offered something to meet the natural desire; there was no exercise of the senses to distinguish both good and evil. This kind of perversion is very common; we have an instance of it in the meaning put on our Lord’s word, “If I will that he tarry till I come”, etc. (John 21: 22). “Then went this saying abroad ... that that disciple should not die”. There was some ground for the idea, but from not carefully weighing the words uttered in simple relation to Him who uttered them, there was misapprehension, and thus is it [p. 35] that there are endless misapprehensions of His mind, and His interests are overlooked for one’s own immediate benefit.
Again, others accept the word, but will not follow it up, they introduce into it limitations of their own. Abram does not fulfil the call which doubtless he had previously accepted, until his father is dead (Genesis 11: 31). Lot pleads for Zoar instead of escaping to the mountain according to the word of the angel (Genesis 19). Jethro induces Moses to surrender the responsibility which the Lord had conferred on him, under the impression that it was too much for him (Exodus 18). “Another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house”, Luke 9: 61. These are cases of limiting, or only accepting part of the divine precept, with the idea that one can act up to only part of the word of God, and not the whole of it. But in every case a loop-hole is secured, where one can gratify one’s own feelings, and so far supersede the mind of the Lord; the senses are not exercised to discern both good and evil.
Again, others openly avow their inability to accept what the word of God plainly enjoins. Moses does this when he pleads his want of eloquence (Exodus 4). There was not the simply subject mind by which no counter opinion would be entertained. In this class the word is not “mixed with faith”, and we have a prominent example of it in the children of Israel, when they refused to go up into the land (Numbers 13).
Others again do more than they are desired to do; they exceed the course prescribed by the word of the Lord; and this too is from the same cause, even that the natural mind is uncontrolled by the word of God, like Moses smiting the rock twice (Numbers 15), or the demoniac in the gospel, who when told to go to his own house and show how great things God had done for him, went his way and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done for him (Luke 8: 39).
[p. 36] Others again, knowingly and willingly run counter to the word of God. Jonah goes down to Tarshish from fear; Barnabas takes Mark from simple natural friendship. But in all these cases and varieties, it is evident that when man’s mind is allowed to act, there is a gainsaying, or a perversion of the word of the Lord in some way or another; and hence, when our tastes or affections are much engaged respecting any course the Lord would have us to follow, the danger is of our own minds acting, for when they do, we misconstrue, limit, exceed, refuse, or oppose, the word of the Lord.